From bowling alleys to digital spaces: Rethinking American social capital

"A deep dive into Robert Putnam's Bowling Alone", over 20 years later, by "former New_ Public Research Fellow Serena Chao".

Social capital, according to Putnam, "is the “connections among individuals — social networks and the norms of reciprocity and trustworthiness that arise from them”... [making] a strong case for a correlation between thriving, healthy communities and higher levels of social capital... economic growth, public health, tax compliance, government legitimacy, life expectancy, and student achievement...".

America started the 20thC with roughly the same levels of social capital as when he wrote Bowling Alone. It grew until the mid-60s before beginning a decline which has continued beyond his book's publication, which he followed in 2020 with The Upswing.

While Putnam identified many factors behind the decline: '' generational change, pressures of time and money, television, and sprawl... but they don’t capture the full complexity". Missing are the way the US economy evolved, "from corporate consolidation to the decline of private unions — as well as dramatic changes in immigration policy". Critics also spot biases in his analysis: "over-indexing on the effect of generational change and overemphasizing the effects of participating in local clubs". Nevertheless, the core thesis is correct: social capital has declined, costing the country much: political polarisation up, less resilient neighbourhoods, etc.

In a Afterword published 20y after Bowling Alone came out, Putnam examined social media, which despite early promise "often makes us feel like we’re “posting alone” rather than part of a larger society", due (acc to author) to their profit motive.

She cites several initiatives to redress the balance IRL, but while todays platforms "have enabled us to make connections across the world... they aren’t helping us connect to each other within our communities... we need to think of these platforms as places to be stewarded rather than media to be consumed... [we are] focused on strengthening local forums and groups already embedded in communities... empowering community stewards".